


Give the Game Away

by byeke



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Chat Noir/Ladybug Fluff, Chat does not call Ladybug m'lady in this fic, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gabriel Agreste's A+ Parenting, Gen, I dont stand for that kind of language in this house, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Chat Noir/Ladybug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:55:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24159997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/byeke/pseuds/byeke
Summary: “Up for a game, Kittycat?”With a devilish grin he says, “What’s for tonight? Charades? I spy?” Chat stretches out his linked hands in front of him and continues, “I’ll have you know I play a mean game of Simon Says.”There are carefully constructed lines that Marinette knows she shouldn’t cross when it comes to their identities, but her sensible conscious can stuff a whole éclair in its mouth and take the night off.----OR Ladybug and Chat Noir decide to play a game to guess one another's identity. Chat is terrible at this and Ladybug starts making assumptions about Chat's home life.(Not an identity reveal fic)
Comments: 13
Kudos: 252





	Give the Game Away

There is a lull in their conversation.

A comfortable silence follows and allows for the heroes to soak in Paris at night. Moonlight stretches around them, illuminating the rooftops. The light even reaches the near empty streets below. Ladybug and Chat Noir’s feet dangle off one of the rooftops, hovering far above the waters of la Seine.

Crumbs fall down Ladybug’s chin as she bites into an éclair. They were today’s leftovers from the bakery. Her parents couldn’t sell them all before closing. They’d be spoiled by opening tomorrow, so she packaged them carefully in a takeout box. Then snuck out her balcony and brought them to share.

Chat picks up an éclair and holds it up to the moon.

“I don’t think the moon is very hungry tonight, Ladybug,” he says, startling the quiet, “ _It looks_ _full_.”

Ladybug huffs out a dry laugh. Chat smiles, satisfied with himself. He raises the éclair to his lips to carefully bite the end of it.

There is another reason why she often brings snacks, other than the possibility of the baked goods growing stale or becoming spoiled. She brings them for Chat, whose made several concerning offhanded comments about food in the past. Comments which Ladybug files neatly away for later, in favor of focusing on whatever Akuma had popped up at the time.

Ladybug worries if the thin boy next to her is eating enough.

“Deep in thought over there?” Chat says. “You’ve been quiet.”

Chat, with the half-eaten éclair, peers over at Ladybug. He tips his head to the side. His ears follow the tilt until one of them lays flat against his head while the other droops down.

“Just thinking about how doglike you look, Kitty. Missed your chance to be named Chien Noir.”

The edges of his lips lift into another smile. She returns the gesture, then resumes looking out at the moonlit Paris before her. He finishes his single éclair and picks off the smeared chocolate from his gloved fingers. It’s still far too early for them to call it a night, but luckily, they have backup plans for slow nights like this.

“Up for a game, Kittycat?”

With a devilish grin he says, “What’s for tonight? Charades? I spy?” Chat stretches out his linked hands in front of him and continues, “I’ll have you know I play a mean game of Simon Says.”

There are carefully constructed lines that Marinette knows she shouldn’t cross when it comes to their identities, but her sensible conscious can stuff a whole éclair in its mouth and take the night off.

She places her finger to her chin.

“Let’s see. How about something new?”

“New?”

She nods and says, “We each get one turn. When it’s your turn you have to ask the other person three questions,” Ladybug holds up three fingers to emphasize, “and each question should be answered truthfully but vague.”

She puts her hand down and leans over.

“By the end of the third question the person who’s it has to guess what the other’s life – outside of the hero gig – is like based on those questions. Whoever’s guess is the most correct is crowned winner and gets the entire pot of eclairs.”

Ladybug gestures to the loaded box of eclairs between them.

Chat’s eyebrows draw together in a frown before he says, “Are you sure about this, Bugaboo?”

“Why not. Or are you afraid I’ll peg you as a cat café enthusiast?”

The frown lifts from Chat’s face and is replaced by a careless smile.

“Alright. You’re on,” he says.

He holds out his hand to Ladybug and they shake on it. She motions for him to go on then she leans back with her arms crossed. She plasters a smug smile to her face.

Chat begins a question but pauses then shakes his head.

“Why do you shop at The Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie all the time?”

“Easy,” Ladybug says, “It’s the best bakery in town.”

Chat waves his hand for her to add more.

“Specifics?” He says

“And,” Ladybug trails off, “I grew up eating the foods from there. Now it’s like I can practically smell the baguettes they make when I wake up in the morning.”

She laughs, but if only Chat knew that she can literally smell the bakery from her bedroom. It is only a single flight of stairs away after all.

Chat says, “At least it’s a more pleasant smell to wake up to than camembert.”

Ladybug begins to ask just what he means by that when Chat waves his finger in the air with a tsk.

“Hold it. Gonna have to wait your turn to ask me anything,” he says.

She sits back and allows him to ask his next questions. He fires off another question – this time about her ideal pet. To which she answers back without hesitation – a hamster, of course.

“Really? me too!” He says, his tail and ears perk up with excitement.

Ladybug’s surprise is hard to stifle. She really expected him to be a cat person. But looking at the boy in front of her, no wonder she assumed that. He asks another question, this time it’s about her favorite color. And Ladybug starts to wonder how Chat is going to piece together an identity with all these random facts. When she answers his third question he strokes his chin with an unreasonable amount of contemplation.

“Your true identity,” he says, “is that you’re really a hamster whose home is a pink cage. But is turned into a human one day.”

_Is this boy serious?_

“You now attend a bakery school as a girl by day but is magical hero by night,” Chat finishes.

“Chat, I say this as your friend, but you’re the worst at this game. By no means was any of that correct,” she says.

Chat grins while his shoulders roll into a shrug.

“Hey, it’s not easy trying to think of questions that won’t give your identity away. Try it. You’ll see,” he says.

Ladybug studies him for a long time, until nearly all the joviality has faded.

Again, she finds herself concerned with the way he fills out his suit. His suit does a fair amount to hide how his ribs protrude. But sitting this close to him she can easily spot how his torso concaves sharply where his stomach should fill. And she’s confident – by how scarily lightweight he feels in her arms when she’s had to save him during a fight and by the way he cherished each bite of that éclair – that he is malnourished.

“What’s your favorite food?” Ladybug asks.

“That’s your first question?” He says.

When she shoots him a look he answers quickly, “Croissants. They’re fluffy and you can pair it with anything you can think of.” He rubs at the back of his neck before adding, “but I don’t really get the chance to eat them often.”

Ladybug frowns, but quickly wipes the worry off her face before Chat notices.

 _Is there enough food to go around at home to feed his family?_ she thinks.

His family is a topic she knows next to nothing about. He’s never mentioned his mother, and siblings are another unknown variable in this equation. But he has a father and Ladybug knows exactly two things about the man; that he is strict and mean.

She decided over winter break a few months ago that she doesn’t like Chat’s father in the least. Marinette had spent the break alone mostly. Alya was tied up with extended family who had come to visit. Nino and his family decided to vacation for the break. Marinette had even stumbled her way through a conversation with Adrien to see if he wanted to hang out, but he apologized saying that he was busy modeling his father’s upcoming winter line. At least Marinette had her patrols with Chat to keep her from boredom. He missed the first few of them, but finally showed up after a week. He met her with his usual bravado, but she quickly caught the feint markings of a black eye that Chat had obviously tried his best to cover up.

Ladybug, reminding herself that she should ask another question, says, “What’s a typical day for you?”

Realization quickly dawns on her that Chat might have to reveal a lot personal information to answer this one, so she waves her hands in front of her face and says, “You don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to! I can think of something else.”

Chat laughs at her frantic movements.

“I don’t mind. My typical day is,” Chat takes a moment. “Aside from the hero stuff, my life is boring, Lady B. I wake up, go to school, then m-“ Chat makes an ‘mmm’ sound before correcting himself, “Then I go to work. Or sometimes I miss school to work instead.”

Ladybug can’t help herself but imagine Chat, with his full hero costume on – tails and cat ears included – working a minimum wage job somewhere. Maybe he’s a waiter. He’s charismatic enough to work at a popular restaurant chatting up tourists. However, her thoughts don’t distract her from the fact that he misses school to go to work, which is another thing to add to her long list of Chat related concerns.

_Does he have to work to support himself? Does he work to pay rent for a small loft and food for him and his father?_

There was that time that she mentioned that they should go out for ice cream to celebrate their one-year anniversary of their first Akuma fight together as Ladybug and Chat Noir. She was excited about it but was crushed when Chat refused. When she pushed for details, he sheepishly replied that he didn’t have any cash to spare and that he almost never sees any of the money he makes from his job. His father handles most of the revenue that Chat makes.

Ladybug asks her final question.

“What’s your favorite thing to do?”

Without skipping a beat, Chat says, “This.”

“This?”

“Being Chat Noir. Spending nights like this with you. Fighting Akumas. I love it.”

Chat looks away and Ladybug can barely see the small smile on his lips or the rose tint to his cheeks.

“I get it. I love this too,” Ladybug says.

They share a smile when Chat finally looks back at her.

“So Ladybug, who am I behind the mask?”

He cocks his head to the side with a sly smile.

She wants to say, _You’re always hungry and never full. Everyday you return to a house that isn’t a home. Every time you see your father you prepare yourself for the next blow. And I wish he knew how hard his son tries as Chat Noir._

Ladybug composes herself. Fixing her smile that had begun to slip and stifling the urge to crush Chat into a hug.

Instead Ladybug says, “Your job is a food critic whose sole purpose is to scour Paris for the best croissant to pair with the best wheel of camembert! You dress as Chat Noir during these food ventures-“

“I go in full costume?” Chat’s says, his eyes are wide.

“to get discounts for being a hero of Paris, of course,” she explains.

Chat stares at her for half a second before busting out in heaving breaths of laughter.

“You got me, Bugaboo,” he puts his arms up in defeat, “My career as a bread enthusiast is _toast_.”

Ladybug pats her partners shoulders.

“It was the _yeast_ I could do,” she says. “I think your reward is in order.”

Ladybug pushes the box of éclairs his way.

She says, “the fact that I’m apparently a hamster in disguise is really compelling.”

It’s far past the time now that they should have gone home, but she wants to keep him here for a while longer. Where she can see him and know that he is safe.

Tomorrow night, Ladybug decides, she’ll bring an extra serving of croissants with a spread of jams and butter for them to share. 

**Author's Note:**

> I have far too many feelings about Chat and use Marinette as a way to project those emotions. 
> 
> Also Chat's guess about Ladybug really being a hamster in disguise and a magical girl at night was very VERY loosly based off of the premise of Princess Tutu. Just replace hamster with a duck and there you go. So shout out to one of my favorite animes!
> 
> If you see any spelling or grammar errors then please feel free to point them out to me! Thank you for reading!


End file.
